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Two weeks ago super-typhoon Haiyan battered the Philippines providing a stark illustration of the massive destruction caused by super-sized storms hyped up by warmer ocean temperatures.

Despite this horrific destruction, the COP (Committee of the Parties to the Kyoto Accord) 19 meetings have accomplished little.

Toronto climate activists will camp out today on the doorstep of Minister Joe Oliver’s constituency office. They are fasting in solidarity with the Philippines Chief Negotiator to the COP talks, Naderev Saño, who has been fasting since day one of the talks in Warsaw Poland, Nov 11th. Nov 22nd is the final day of the COP.

“We are hungry for climate leadership” said Lyn Adamson. ”And we are not seeing any from the Canadian government. Our delegation is actually impeding progress and this is shameful.”

Canada has been listed as 58th out of 61 countries in terms of climate action, the worst record of all the developed countries. https://germanwatch.org/en/ccpi

“The Harper administration has clearly revealed its climate stance by applauding Australia's carbon tax repeal. Canada is obstructionist; it is wrong to discourage other industrialized nations from following through on their own climate change commitments, wrong to interfere with the European Fuel Quality Directive, and wrong to withhold funds for the Green Climate Fund” says Rita Bijons, of Toronto Climate Campaign.

Lyn Adamson, Co-Chair of the Canadian Voice of Women for Peace, says “there will be little peace in this world if we do not address the urgent requirement for massive cuts in CO2 emissions. It is totally unacceptable to abandon future generations to a temperature rise above 2 degrees. This is inevitable if we do not change course now.”

“We need action on climate – fast” says Margaret Rao, Vice-Chair of Canadian Unitarians for Social Justice. “The costs of inaction on climate can be as high as $200 billion, much higher than what it would cost to invest in conservation and renewables - now.”

Adamson, Bijons and Rao are members of the ClimateFast (www.climatefast.ca). They have fasted for more than a week in front of the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa in Sept 2012 and Sept 2013. ClimateFast hare asking MPs to sign a pledge for climate action. 116 MPs have signed the pledge calling to work toward an end to fossil fuel subsidies, put a price on carbon, and develop a renewable energy plan for Canada.

The day of action is being held in solidarity with 350.org. 350 is the ppm in the atmosphere that is the maximum compatible with a stable climate. We are at 394 ppm http://keelingcurve.ucsd.edu/